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NC State sports podcast hosted by Griffin Cunningham, Stone Boylan and Patrick Simon of WKNC.
0:10
Welcome back to light it read the 12th episode, I believe at least that's what I have written down. On this episode, we are going to be going over obviously updates for all of the major sports that are happening around NC State's campus. But also, our biggest and most important segment of this episode is going to be going over the transfer class for PAC football as we've been meaning to do this for an episode or two now, and I think it's good that we didn't because it gave it a little bit more time to develop. But this is pretty much as good as it's gonna get, you know, I don't think we're gonna get any more major transfers. So that can be something that we can evaluate and get off to. But first, we're always going to start off with updates from all the other sports that are going around town. So let's start off with swimming and diving. Griffin, can you get into what's going on in our swimming and diving team?
1:11
I was wondering what the Walkman did amount of debt to date and wham.
1:21
Griffin, could you get into the analysis for swimming and diving for? Sure. So you're not going to talk like that.
1:32
So for swimming and diving?
They haven't. I mean, they just started the ACC championships on the 20th Today's the 21st and that continues the 24th so results will be posted by the 24th. But as of our last recording nothing has changed with their win loss ratio.
1:53
I do want to do right actually, I should probably do wrestling because wrestling just offered swimming and diving that much changed recently had to you went to one of the games I was I was wanting to go to one of them. But this one here matches. So yeah, you can you can get into wrestling too. If that's it for swimming.
2:10
Yeah. So I went to my first first wrestling match like, because I went to the UNC one but like it didn't.
Didn't work out like didn't didn't have a seat at the table. That was a problem. So Oh, you didn't have a media. But get this up there. Right. So that was against UNC. That had a big fight feel though it turned out it was a dud. So I'm like alright, I'll go number eight, North Carolina State versus number nine Cornell that's got a big fight feel. Yeah, we previewed that game. Those are that match those big? Yeah.
So I emailed girl, the communications person. She's like, Yep, you got a seat baby. So I had a seat word.
2:51
That's what she said.
2:52
No, she sent a very formal email.
But I had a seat and I went and let me tell you ... it was good.
3:03
Yeah, I watching way to format well see the reason that I paused there and then just said that was because I didn't want to say anything disrespectful about the smells again.
3:15
Oh, did it pop up?
3:17
Yeah, the smells and the smells made an appearance thing.
3:20
Was it from a singular human being? That we referenced last episode or? Yeah, dang. Well, it's unfortunate. But did we? Sometimes you can get over the smell for the results pay off? Yeah, let's pay off and the results in the match.
3:34
I mean, it was good. I made sure I sat as as far as I possibly could. And yeah, the results were pretty good. We obviously we won. It was the first wrestling match I had ever been to really Yeah. My dad wrestled in high school. I don't know anything about our scoring system or anything like that. He actually, no, I do know this. It's by weight class. So like,
they got like, little chihuahuas out there. They're like stone. They're like 110 pounds.
4:08
What? Like, I thought you were gonna say like me or something.
4:12
No the lowest weight, I think, on the card was 119 versus 119. Why? Yeah, so they had little female? I assume no? Male. It's an all male wrestling. I don't know if wrestling had any wrestling some sport? I'm pretty sure. Wow. Yeah. So they're live and like functioning. They're just shorter. They're like four foot nine. I think they're about five feet around five feet only.
4:41
So small guys, but really muscular. Yeah, really impressive. Like, I mean, it goes all the way up to like the heavyweight division. Yeah, like, I think we have like 196 pound guy who's like one of the best in the nation right now. He's like ranked number two. His name's like, Trent hit Headley.
5:00
Somebody I've seen that name. Yeah. And he he went his match. Basically, we only lost.
5:08
I think it was to two or three in a row. And then like Trent came in and like kind of just clutched it up. But the first we didn't lose like a single, you know, total
5:19
match. Like it was like, well, it's basically like a head to head. Yeah, but we didn't lose like in totality. No, it's a team finalized score. Yeah. So you only get points from winning your head to head match. Yeah, so Cornell won. Like, I don't it was like, either two or three head to head matchups. And he came in and save the day. I mean, yeah, they got they got on a little bit of a streak, but you can't really there's really no momentum because this is a head to head. Yeah.
5:48
I mean, it was, they would have had to, like win all of them. It just wasn't happening. Like, there was one kid who
5:56
the second guy who went out he, like he pinned the coil, you get points for like, pinning people. And you know if there are any wrestling fans up like not like WWE fans, but like, actual like wrestling gurus you want to like come on and talk about like the wrestling the art of wrestling. I would welcome that because I thought it was really interesting. It was hard to like keep up with because like different things are new, different points. Like you get up you earn a point for escaping like a hold just one singular point. But you get like five points for pinning or like four points for pinning. But that doesn't end the match, like a pin is just a certain amount of points. Yeah. So anyways, all that is to say, we made light work of Cornell, the number nine team in the country. And we were the number eight team. Awesome. Well, that's Oh, that's great. Was there and then I think we also ended up being Duke. Yeah. And then in Virginia, so that's that's pretty good. But Cornell was definitely the big one, because they were ranked that was the ranks. And then we play Virginia Tech next on the 23rd. And that should be the last regular season matchup for wrestling. So good luck to those guys. That is on Friday. We're recording this on Wednesday, so you'll probably it probably would maybe have passed by the time this episode gets out. Maybe this episode gets out this Friday, maybe Saturday, it'll probably be around the time. And I Virginia Tech is not currently ranked, I don't think but they were at one point. So it should be it
7:26
should be interesting. I'm going to go ahead and assume that NC State will come away with that one and go into some go with some momentum into the ACC Championship, which we've won the ACC a ton in the past five years, and we've been very successful. voicecrack So awesome for wrestling. Now.
7:46
Griffin, can you get a
7:49
little a little mix up there? Can you get into gymnastics as well? Did anything go on in gymnastics? I feel like there was something important that happened. Could you inform us and remind us Yeah, I can I can do that. So last time we we chatted about gymnastics, they had just come off of victory against Pitt, which was the first ACC matchup hosted at James T. Valvano. arena at William Neal Reynolds. Reynolds Coliseum are yet to see the full name. It's a mouthful. Well, you know, it's also called it's it's also not a code. It's also
8:31
it's also called que el corte. So it's kind of a lot going on there. I noticed. But
8:39
that gymnastics matchup was a win. And then they went and played Clemson on the road. And then they went again. And they played Carolina at home, won that one. And then they played Clemson at home. And they went again. And so wow. I those are all ACC matchups. I don't know if we talked about this last time, but the only teams in the ACC as if there's only four of them are Clemson. Carolina state and Pitt. Yeah, just four teams or four. Yeah. So I don't really know that. I mean, they walked away from this Clemson victory on the 17th as ACC champions, yeah. Good on them. So and they also scored 190 7.575 Which when I talked about that last time, this is the only time they've hit the 197 mark on the season. They only hit it one time last season. I'm pretty sure. It's a pretty rare occurrence. It's a really high score. And they had a lot of individuals on the team perform really well at night. Awesome. So yeah, they claim it I assume it's because they're, as you said, only four teams that have in the ACC at least have gymnastics teams. So But hey, that's the title for us. Yeah, I think it was a clinching scenario because they had our
10:00
already won all of their ACC matchups. So even though there's still an ACC matchup left on the schedule, I think they've already claimed vs Pitt, I believe on the 25th correct the rest of them right. Yeah, I don't think there's any more ACC matchups it's first others to apply their program. Yeah. And so cleaned up good on good on them. That's, that's good for gymnastics. And then the two basketball programs obviously, we know the better one, that's women's basketball, unfortunately, had a missed opportunity. They, we previewed this game a little bit last episode. And it was Virginia Tech, because this was a heartbreaker that we lost a few weeks ago.
10:39
It was at Virginia Tech, by one point very close game. And on we i i was definitely expecting revenge, we were expecting a win at home. And that didn't happen. We ended up losing by nine points at home to Virginia Tech. So I'm, you know, we once tournament time comes around, we'll actually be able to talk about one tournament team, which is definitely gonna be women's, hopefully men's. We'll dive into that later. But women's will for sure be in the tournament. And I think I am definitely going to at least have my eyes on the style of play that Virginia Tech has considering the beat us twice, both on their home for and an hours. So whatever formula they used, whether they are a bigger team, because I do know they have two bigs that are going to be going to the WNBA Virginia Tech does they got to lottery tickets. So at least like you know, print James's Yeah, projected. So they are very good team, I'm just saying, at home, you kind of want to win all the home games you can. So that was an unfortunate loss. But we went three in a row since then, versus Pitt ranked Notre Dame who was 16. And overtime win versus Georgia Tech, which Georgia Tech is a bubble team. But it wasn't home. So it really close games at home, you don't really want to get to that point. But at least you know, nonetheless, they still put it off. And the next two games are going to be on the road versus our rivals, UNC and Duke we had them at home, we beat both of them. But now we're on the road back to back. They are the seventh and eighth seed respectively in the latest bracketology projections for women's basketball. So they're definitely not, you know, blow over matchups, they're definitely gonna be very important. And then after those two games, that I'm seeing all the games because the neck but by the time we do the next episode, they would have already actually finished the regular season. So after UNC and Duke, they finished off with two home games, versus Syracuse, and Wake Forest. Syracuse is a borderline ranked team. They're even better than UNC and Duke. So that'll be a pretty important home game. And then Wake Forest, I think has literally four wins on the season. So they're the worst. So that should be a dub, but still pretty, pretty tough games going into the ACC tournament, I think we should still be the one seed going in, even if we lose maybe to UNC or Duke because road games are tough. And both of those teams are they have us circled on their schedule, because we ended up beating them. But I think we ideally would win the ACC or get very far. And then we'll get into tournament projections on the next episode, but that is women's still kicking it not as I mean, to begin the year, we didn't think they would be like, you know, one or two seeds. I think they're projected to seed right now. But, you know, I think we got a little ahead of ourselves. When they beat a lot of good teams and got to the one seed they kind of came back down to earth a little bit. But they'll still finish off pretty strong.
13:40
Yeah, and you really you brushed over that Georgia Tech game, but I just wanted to mention that, you know, the reason they lost that game was because Cara Dunn sophomore guard from Georgia Tech, dropped a 30 burger on us, she scored 31 points and shot 73% from the field. So that's not going to happen. She thought she she shot 78% from three really 70 APS she's so that's not going to happen every time out. No, absolutely. I just wanted to mention that because she had a stellar performance that night and the overtime loss. Well, a lot of the a lot of that, you know, a lot of times when these lower teams get on hot shooting streaks they end up winning like not to get off course. But you know, with men's basketball, produce losses and most recently Yukons loss were to teams that shot as a team like over 60% from three, which is just not going to happen every single time. So some that's why a lot of upsets happen. Some teams just get hot from three. So that's cool that we're able to still pull through the adversity and actually win the game rather than have it be an unfortunate loss on our schedule. But yeah, I didn't know that she shot that high. It's pretty insane. I said I said night it was during the day. Oh, I mean, thank you for the very important clarification needed there. Oscar, welcome. So that's women's basketball.
15:00
And then our big disappointment, men's basketball, they have lost three of their last four. Now, these three losses have been by three, four and five points respectively. So each game one by three, one by four, and one by five, we did have a huge window in between that which was Clemson on the road, who has a projected five seed. But the most recent loss we had was at home to Syracuse, which was after this great Clemson win that honestly kind of brought us back into the fold, like we, you know, had lost these two close games to Pitt, and I believe it was on the road, one of them was to Wake Forest, which we own, we totally could have won that game as well. And after beating Clemson, you know, hopes were a little bit higher, because that was definitely our best win of the year. And after this Syracuse loss, it really just brings us back down to Earth, as you know, hey, we're not gonna make the tournament unless we make a crazy run in the ACC Championship, which is possible, but not likely.
16:01
Now, we are 80th in that ranking. And we have, you know, road games coming up at UNC and Pitt, and then a home game at Duke approaching, which I think Boston College has also thrown in there, which I expect to win. But in terms of projections, we're kind of looking at like an 1819 win season, which would be for less than last year, and I think really brings up a lot of questions about the coach going into the season. And Griffin, I think you had said that there was some sort of article that was posted. I didn't know about this until he told me it technician article. All I know, and all I'm gonna say as of right now, I mean, you can dive into it, but I checked when I opened up Twitter, or x or whatever, whatever it's called. And it had 54,000 views. But 31 Total likes. So this is not very, very well received, apparently, by the people. What What was this article about? Yeah, so this was, I caught wind of it, because some group chats were going off. We I mean, we're all within student media. And
17:13
I mean, standard, I extend beyond just the radio station and the podcast, like
17:20
we're, we're kind of a family with pseudo media. So this is a student media publication.
17:27
It was a column, so an opinion piece, and it just got some heat. And this has happened before. technician, the student newspaper posts, all the time, they always have articles are going up. And they're printing newspapers every week. And sports. This was a sports media column.
17:51
And so that Yeah, I mean, there, there are instances where things are not as well received, considering that this is a pretty established student newspaper. So
18:01
I just thought that it was interesting. I mean, I don't, first of all,
18:09
I appreciate you setting me up with the with the Twitter stuff. But let me just say that
18:17
Kevin Keats is on the hot seat. Because we didn't we didn't really get into that. I don't know if you agree with that? No, I do. But he is coaching for his job. And so that's kind of where this article comes from? Because there are some people that think, well, maybe, maybe not, maybe it's not a Kevin kitas shoe, it's a personnel issue with the team.
18:40
And then other people are very quick to blame the coach. And I think it's, people are more hesitant to pull the trigger on firing a coach, because we have
18:52
different athletic director now, who hasn't, I mean, he brought Kevin Keats in, and he hasn't had to fire a coach before, at least with with football and basketball are two major sports and women's basketball as well.
19:06
And before that, we went through two coaches. So it's just like, the six year 10 years, they're not really it's just not really working out. So we don't want to see it, like, keep repeating the cycle.
19:19
And so that's kind of the argument. I mean, the writer of this article is saying that
19:25
he should be given a little bit more of a leash and that he should be around for next season as well, because of other things like injuries or like things that aren't necessarily Kevin Keats's fault.
19:42
But the NC State alum and then the Twitter followers or NC State fans, whoever you want to call this following, had some had some things to say about it.
19:54
And I wanted to read a couple of them. Read some of the comments. Yeah, I thought they were
20:00
Have they will funny. I mean,
20:04
go ahead, give me give me some of the best comments from this. This list which, by the way, I understand why it wasn't perceived very well. I do agree. I think kids should. He's for sure on the hot seat. I don't think after the Syracuse loss, we should be like, Oh, he's guaranteed to be back. But what what are some of the comments that were on this? Yeah, I mean, in the reason I'm reading these two is because I mean, this is relevant. This is like, yeah, we are making content for the public. So here's what the public had to say.
20:33
A tradition like no other technician sucking at everything. Okay, while trying to spray perfume on the turd. Yikes. Nah, nope. No, it's time. Blank, the person that wrote the story, I'm not going to mention them by name, because I'm not sure if he wants to be mentioned by name. But blank must be the pen name for Kevin Keats. Or he is an apathetic fan.
20:59
Nope, he should go away. One of the worst takes and reasoning I've ever seen for anything in a long time. This article is absolutely embarrassing.
21:12
This is a parody article written by the onion or the B. Why was it even me? Like a question? Is this a parody article?
21:23
Kind of a weird comment. All this article tells me is the writer thinks we have too high of expectations and we need to embrace mediocrity. No, we don't.
21:34
So this is a laundry list of terrible takes. That goes to show there not anyone who embraces this opinion is part of the problem.
21:43
There was one thing about the writer room of technician just being a circle,
21:49
circle jerk, or just.
21:53
Okay.
21:55
So needless to say, people are not happy about the proposition of Kevin Keats returning next year, I would say I'm relatively on board, I think the only thing that could save his job is if NC State goes ahead, you know, and they make a really deep run in the ACC tournament. And if they like just barely miss it, I could see him coming back. But any other scenario with them not being in the tournament, I think he should be gone. And just, you know, for some perspective, he was hired in 2017, which I think the hire was valid. He came from UNC Wilmington where he made the tournament two years in a row, and ended up winning the conference two years in a row. So you know, clearly was successful, UNC Wilmington. And then when he went to NC State, his first season he made the tournament, he made the rounds at 64 and his very first year. But since then, he's made one other tournament appearance, which obviously was last year. And if he doesn't make it this year, that would end up being five times out of the seven wishes. This is his seventh year, seven total years that he would have not made the tournament.
23:14
And obviously two first round exits for both years. And just in comparison to the very last coach, we had Mark Godfried. In six seasons each, they have the same exact win percentage 58.9. And potentially after this season, it might be even lower for Kevin Keats, and Mark Godfried, in his six years here, made the tournament four different times making the sweet 16 twice. He made the sweet 16 Two times and made the tournament four times out of his six years. The other two times that he didn't make the sweet 16 He got out in the first round. But he made it four out of six in general. And Kevin Keats has the same amount of first round, you know, exits, but that's the exact amount of tournament appearances he has. So even though they have the same record, Mark Godfried has clearly been able to be more successful in the tournament. And unfortunately, some guys obviously, you know, maybe he's a good coach. He clearly showed it Wilmington. Sometimes you try and build a program and maybe the way you did it just doesn't end up working and maybe some other place probably at a lower program, again, might be best for Kevin Keats, and we could try and find someone else but if I was the
24:36
you know, athletic director, and we do not make the tournament or if we miss it, it's because we were like barely there. I would move on from from from Kevin Keats, and I think
24:48
he No he isn't just in terms of his coaching style. I think he's late to a lot of stuff. And by that I mean like trends within the game. If you just watch the game like something will be going on.
25:00
And it'll be happening over and over again. And he just makes the change way too late, like the Syracuse game I was watching. Most recently, they had a guy on their team was getting wide open threes in the corner, just making them every single time. And it took that guy to get 26 points in the first half for him at halftime to be like, You know what, let me change up my, my defensive scheme here. And let me put other guys that can actually guard the perimeter out there. And it but it's like, they end up losing and they had a chance to win. Which Another downside is it he had a horrendous drawn up play. It wasn't even a play at all. We had the ball. The game was tied against Syracuse at the last second. And they give it to DJ horn, which, you know, sucks, because he's been really good. He's honestly, you know, given the production that equivalent Smith had last year, he's dropping like 30 points, you know, 20 points in these past like five, six games, he gets the ball off the screen, it's not open at all just shoots, it tries to get a foul, it wasn't a foul at all. He just tried to go for it, but it's a horrible play call. So even at that point, he's not doing a great job in game making adjustments. And then going back to the workforce game, you know, he got thrown out in that game, which
26:17
Griffin you told me that I think that was his first time getting thrown out. And I didn't really know, I had no clue. But he didn't really come off that way. But the way you got thrown out was off a correct call. He was arguing against the correct call. So the him being ejected could have been avoided anyways. So you know, that's, that's at least my opinions on it. Do you share the same sentiment?
26:41
Well, first of all, he got thrown out against BYU as well.
26:46
So twice in one season hasn't happened at all before? I don't know. Because it doesn't see it does. I don't think it had happened. It wasn't he had never made a habit of that or like that wasn't something that he was known for. So
27:03
no, I don't think if it did happen, it wasn't very frequent.
27:09
But I mean, I don't know. It's, it's a guy, it's his job. So I'm not like, gonna, I like him as a person. I mean, she was a very, you know, a down to earth guy. So I'm not I'm not going to say take his job away.
27:26
And I also just wanted to say that,
27:29
although I was having fun with the ex comments, I do not condone. Okay. I don't think I mean, hate comments from behind the screen, or, you know, no, I agree, even though I do share the same sentiment that the people commenting them do, I don't carry it out in the same way. Especially, you know, like, during games and stuff, you know, people say whatever they want all the time, because there's no repercussions at all, but he's obviously, you know, he is a good in seems like a down to earth and good person. I just think if you're analyzing, you know, the performance, I think it, you know, obviously, the, the, you know, perception from fans can be a little bit blurred. But a lot of times when the fans start calling that, you know, seats start burning up, and his is definitely getting to that point, because PR is not good when the fans aren't enjoying it. And the ad obviously cares about that a lot, because that means people aren't gonna be going to games and you know, so on. So, you know, hopefully for his sake, he could turn it around. But at this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if he he is can't at the end of this year, but maybe if he's given one more year, that will for sure be the Do or die. I don't expect him to be here. It let's say he gets one more year and doesn't make the tournament, there's zero chance after that. zero chance. But if he gets another year and makes it maybe he could survive another another contract and maybe build off of that, but I think it's definitely going to, you know, his his resume building is going to start right now with maybe a signature when versus Duke at home, or something like that. To be like, hey, look, I'm building something. And, you know, but again, we'll we'll see if he even makes it past this year. Yeah. And go check out that article too. I mean, it's if it's causing such debate, then maybe it's reading and guess Yeah, so let's go take a look at that. But I would be nice about it. If you don't like
29:32
Well, that is basketball. Now. We can get into the football transfer class. So
29:40
I don't know how much you have. But I do have a ton of stuff. So I can I'm gonna semi lead this segment. And then you can pop in with you know, different stuff that you have or players that you're very interested in. Are we talking about players that have departed the program or just players who do both
30:00
Okay, you can do both I focused on incoming, that's kind of what I focused on. But I do acknowledge them to players that are, you know, going outwards. But just an overarching, you know, just just so you have a clear understanding of what the transfer classes looking like, on the two main sites that rank recruits and transfers. This is specifically the transfer class, by the way, not incoming freshmen. We could go into that later. But a lot of it's kind of just guessing, you know, like, Oh, I think this freshman is going to do good. I think this guy's going to do good. Like, obviously, the biggest freshman we had last year was KC Concepcion. But I don't think anyone projected him doing what he did. And it's very hard to do that. So unless they're starting as a freshman, you know, it'll be we could project but we won't be getting into that, at least in this episode, it'll just be transfers. But on the two sites, they were ranked number 11. And number seven in the nation, which averages out to around a top 10 transfer class in the entire nation and the entire division one, around the third or second best in the ACC, Florida State was clearly number one. And on one site, they were above Louisville, and on the other side, they were below Louisville. So they're right there with Louisville, but behind Florida State as one of the best transfer classes in the ACC and just a phenomenal transfer class in general, at least in terms of the rankings. Now on the surface, you know, obviously you could say hey, we have a great transfer class but who left like did we gain as much as we let you know, we lost and I think on the surface it does look like an upgrade. But it it is undoubtedly an upgrade on offense. Like no question. The most notable guys are skilled position players which is very interesting because it's good you know, I think it's pretty interesting for us to be able to follow the skills position guys that transferred rather than you know, maybe some defenders that transferred it's a little bit harder, but with skills positions, it'd be cool that we get these brand new guys which I think was definitely a big need from from last year. But the I have a few of them down here that I dove into
32:11
the most, I'd say the the big three that we have would be the tight end wide receiver and halfback that we got. And that were pretty big, highly touted transfers, and that is Justin jolly. A tight end from UConn. Jordan waters, a transfer from Duke halfback. And the biggest one in my opinion, in terms of the school's positions is wide receiver Noah Rogers from Ohio State. Starting off with our tight end, he's a four star junior from UConn. So we still would have another year, maybe even two years of eligibility left. He's already played two seasons. His last year he was seventh among tight ends and yards. He's around like 6364 to 30. So he's not your typical like, big body tight end, he's more of a receiving tight end. He also played most of his snaps in the slot. He's a very good athlete, I'd say his speed is like average NFL speed. But in college, average NFL is like good college speed. So in terms of him playing against other collegiate defenders, he should be pretty good. In terms of his performance, he graded out as like an average college tight end. But I think the upgrade that he's going to have at offense is immense. The quarterback that he had last year was not very good. And you know, he, the receiving corps around him was not very good. So he had a good amount of attention on him was a four star recruit going into UConn. So I think compared to our other tight ends that we had, he'll be consistent and it should be an upgrade at this position. The next one is Jordan waters that we brought up. He's a halfback. He's a grad transfer. So he's and this is the last year he's gonna have, but he's from Duke. He's been a Duke since 2019. He first started in 2022. So he said two years of starting, and last year was the best year of his career. He had 950 total yards 5.3 yards per carry with 12 touchdowns. He's a very solid blend of strength and speed, which I think is needed for a guy who's going to be a three down back, which we, I would say need at this point, because last year, we kind of just had a rotation of different guys who played you know, different roles. He had more production than both Delbert Mims and Michael Allen combined, who those were the two running backs that ended up transferring out which one of them went to Eastern Michigan that would be Mims and then Mike Lyon went to University of Nevada Nevada Las Vegas,
34:44
but he's gonna come in and pretty much be the main starting halfback and I think it'd be good he'll be, you know, one of the better starting running backs in the ACC, and I think he'll for sure being upgrade at the position because a lot of our runners we're not really like full timer.
35:00
Max it was kind of just Brennan Armstrong running or KC Concepcion running like well, you have a full time kindergarten, Rafael but good at the end there. He kind of he had eight touchdowns but he got eight touchdowns from like the goal line. It sounds like he got us to he had a couple of little ones that he broke. He must haven't helped really he just wasn't healthy all season. Yeah, but he knew his yards per carry were not very high. So he wasn't really getting a lot of these like full runs. If he's running it's for like, two yards. Yeah, and I think he had some juice. Not a ton though, especially in comparison. I don't agree with you. He couldn't he was not a third that he was not a three down No, because he was running behind Mims and Alan and he was a freshman it's not necessarily running behind to start the season left Allen literally left and so it's wide open. This room is wide open so go take it if it's because Allen Michael Island was you know, for lack of a better word like he didn't step up at all like he was there and then boom gone. Went to go train transport in the middle of the season. No, he didn't. That was a different guy, Michael Island.
36:06
Alan's when the Houston's the one that redshirted and then transferred. No Michael Island didn't finish the year. He didn't know. And then when they made memes, it was a combination of memes and Rafael Mims and Rafael and Rafael got injured a couple of times during the season two which Rafael was the one that had larger runs? I mean, he averaged like 4.3 yards per carry. He was the one in one of the games that I think came was the UNC game had a great like bounce off run where he literally bounced off a guy and ended up running he did a few games in a row I feel like he was the one we went to he did that too. He had a big run like a 40 yard run against like Miami Who you talking about? Kendrick graphite Yeah. Rafa the one that you just said his yards per carry was low. No, I'm talking about Delbert mins. See, I'm talking about Rafael. Yeah. Rafael. Sen. Mims was the one that got Goldline. carries. Yeah, I was saying Rafael Mims is not on the team anymore. Yeah, no, he's not I'm saying Rafael deserves to be the lead back I thought you're talking about Okay, so that's just talked about Debert mins? No, so I was saying I didn't agree with you because you were saying that Rafael was a low yards per carry and a goal. I know some of the debate memes. Okay. So that is true. No, no, because I was saying between Delbert, like, the production that we're losing, like, Michael Allen was not like, not even really as effective when he got the starting job, and then dubber Mims had a lot of touchdowns but they weren't really like effective touchdowns. I was just talking about the production that's leaving. Which was those right but then you didn't mention Rafael. Well, I was going to later we went up like other slowly I think you were saying that there wasn't a three down back and what I'm saying is that I think Kendrick Rafael deserves to get a crack at it before waters does. I don't think you will though. Because water is retro fresh or is it as a no right I mean, I'm sorry a senior isn't seen if they aren't careful then Rafael might enter the portal maybe I'm just saying watch this is coming in off the best year of his career.
38:10
You know who's which he's been a good starting running back before but we that my point is we didn't have like a real starting running back last year. Like they rotated in a ton of guys. And our lead rushers were our quarterback and a receiver. Those were our two leading rushers which is just it's like, obviously cool to get a lot of those plays, but it's not a sustainable rushing attack, like at all well, I'm gonna say You know, now it's probably gonna still be rotation. Not fully though, I think I think it will be a two back three back rotation still. I mean, they know they can totally get in. There's another guy here that we're going to bring up. That was another transfer who's a redshirt freshman. Guy with the name. This name is awesome. Yeah. Yeah, Smothers, Hollywood, Hollywood. Hollywood smothers. That's the best name I've seen. He was he's not of the big three. I think the big three was jolly waters. And then the guy that I can get into right now, which is Noah Rogers, which this is probably the one that has the biggest potential. In terms of transfers. He's a receiver. Forestar redshirt freshman from Ohio State. He's originally was from North Carolina. He was the number two player in the state of North Carolina last year and a top 10 receiver nationally and recruiting. He committed to Ohio State which is basically wide receiver University. I mean, they pump out wide receivers left and right to the NFL, and was kind of just stuck behind a lot of other guys that were there. And now comes back to North Carolina and comes here to state where he's going to start immediately, which is much much needed. And he's pretty much going to be the alpha receiver on the outside and he's a guy who can borderline do everything. He's just a pure playmaker, six to 193 He's not like as big or bulky as up
40:00
receivers but he's very versatile and has verified and full speed and athleticism. He's kind of similar to like a slimmer Chris Godwin in the fact that like Chris Gardner who can run pretty much every route really reliable solid he's not the craziest athlete in the world or doesn't do all these insane catches but just a super reliable good playmaker.
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You know it, this is for sure the biggest difference maker, because he has literally he like actually has NFL talent. Like if he stays here and is able to produce, we could see him get drafted into the NFL. And I think you know, with KC Concepcion as more of like a smaller gadget guy in the slot who did a ton. But obviously, we Casey wasn't really just lining up on the outside and being like, Okay, go beat this corner deep. And I'll get it to you. Like he was more of like, crossing routes screens, like that's how we got Casey, the ball runs, you know, no, Rodgers fits more of the traditional style wide receiver that we did not really have last year, because no one really stepped up like that. It was Casey and we gave so many other guys a chance to step up, and no one really did. So if if Noah can be on the field, this is a complete game changer for offense, and one that I'm really excited about. Yep, I agree with you here. I think. I like that he has three full years of eligibility left. And we have had receivers from last season that profile the same way he did, you know, the the six to build almost sooner pounds supposed to be a deep threat. But like you said it didn't work out. So hopefully this Ohio State kid comes in and can make a difference on the outside. Yeah, I think I mean,
41:40
we bring up like the guys that had, you know, nobody stepped up or out a lot of the receivers like I was so disappointed in and didn't really like. And then you know, we have I mean, obviously there's guys like Porter rooks.
41:53
Yeah, but the biggest one, I mean, in terms of like, Oh, this guy might do something who was super young was Terrell Timmons, and he had one good game. I think it was the loss against Louisville. Maybe I can't remember the game. But he had one good game and ended up like talking. Like I remember after the press conference, he was pissed and was like, talking about your crap or whatever, and didn't do anything after. And it was like, really like what's going on? Like, what's going on? He was he was in the 2022 class and came here and he was the one that was supposed to have a lot of potential and didn't he ended up transferring to Colorado, but there were so many other guys like Porter rooks. Nothing like I really expect a lot from the transfer from rice that we ended up getting this year. The white receiver. Yeah. Bradley Rosner, I expected a ton from him. And he wasn't bad, but he didn't do nearly as much expected at all. So the quarterback couldn't really get No, he wasn't necessarily there. But there were definitely games I'd watch where I'm like, This dude just dropped this path, like what's going on? He's serious. So I think, you know, this is a very, very, very good transfer to where he just comes in, boom, fill the role. So those are the main three skills positions that are probably going to actually start in terms of the projected depth chart, all three of them are projected starters right now. And then there are two other, you know, skills position guys who won't start but they're definitely going to play a role next year. You brought up one of them. And it's Hollywood. His name is I think, Dylan. So Dylan Hollywood Smothers, he's 510 he 190. But he plays much bigger than his size. He's kind of like a do it all back. He can receive it does a good job of ripping off like chunk gains. He's really a perfect running back to who's so young so we can keep them in the building. This will be a very fun, I think is going to be a fan favorite player, maybe as a starter in the next two years. But right now he's the projected number to split with
43:58
Rafael, I believe. So I think that'd be a great running back room much better than last year. Hopefully. You will. I don't think anyone's going to purely win the battle for RB two as you had brought up with Rafael. It'll be a rotation I think it's gonna be a rotation for two. I think waters kind of has first and second down. And maybe for third down. It can be a combination of smothers and Rafael.
44:24
You know, because like I said Armstrong and conception were literally our best runners last year that's just not sustainable at all. But the other guy is Wesley Grimes. He's a receiver from Wake Forest originally from Raleigh. He only started three games at Wake Forest but was pretty solid in all three of those games having a combined 147 yards and three touchdowns. He has a ton of technical skill, great route running great hands. In terms of starting receivers, DJ Collins, who you know, we talked about receivers not stepping up. He was very young, so he didn't really get a chance early, but later on he started
45:00
Starting games and was actually not being too bad. And he is projected to start the year. And he's, you know, good probably going to be the other outside receiver across from Noah. He's much bigger than Wesley.
45:16
DJ Collins is like 642 112 pounds compared to Wesley who's six 287. So, definitely a big difference there. But I think it's gonna be very interesting to see how Collins does when he's actually going to be able to start, because he also only started three games last year. But I think you should expect Wesley to at least get some more run as the season goes on. Maybe in for receiver sets or on different formations when we don't need a big, you know, receiver and we could throw in Wesley Grimes in there. So, receivers, skills positions, huge, huge, huge upgrades there, which, which is really interesting. And then the only other offensive, you know, thing that we added was two o lineman, we brought in a senator by the name of Zeke coral, who is a guard grad transfer from Notre Dame, he's gonna replace our center, Dylan McMahon, who was our best offensive lineman last year and literally left, he was the only guy that from the offensive line that that is not going to return from last year, which you know, other than Missouri's transfer valen Erickson who's just a sophomore and hasn't played a snap yet ever, we kind of would have liked to upgrade the O line a little bit more. Because if we're being honest, that was definitely an issue last year, and I think did create a obviously with Armstrong, he ran sometimes more than he needed to, but
46:44
sometimes the O line kind of forced him to get out of the pocket and run. So I would have liked to see a little bit more, or at least maybe one more bigger O line transfer. But either way, it'd be the same old line pretty much as last year. So you're just gonna have to hope that theoretically, there should be improvement with them having played a whole year together, even if it's just individual improvement, I think we could look at it and say it can't get much worse than last year. So maybe they could go from being not a really great Oh, line to at least an average to respectable offensive line. But I would definitely say offense at the biggest upgrade here. And then yeah, what I'm seeing here is just like, replacements for defensive players that have left, yeah, defense was, it was not as much of the focus. And I think in totality, the defense itself might take a bit of a step down just honestly purely from the loss of Peyton Wilson. I mean, just that alone can take you know, have everyone go down. In terms of guys that transferred. The only important one was CJ Clark, who was a starting defensive tackle for us. But he wasn't even really that good starting on the interior, which kind of hence why Peyton had to make so many, you know, you saw him like blasting into the holes in terms of the offensive lineman because all you know, the other team was able to get an open Run and boom, Peyton Wilson's in there, it's because CJ Clark got beat on the D line. So you know, I don't think that's a big loss. But the other the two main losses are from the secondary. I think the secondary you know, they are they I don't think I know that they definitely had the biggest shake up this from last year this year, Robert Kennedy and Shaheen battle are both lost due to no more eligibility. But you know, they did smartly get most of their defensive transfers in the secondary. And then we also had one at linebacker, the one at linebacker that was filled. It was actually filled by one of the top JUCO transfers, which is a junior college transfer. And it's linebacker Wyatt, right from Mississippi Gulf Coast is where he's coming from. And I read up on him and he's a great athlete and kind of fits exactly what state is going to lose with Peyton Wilson, just a guy who can just power right through the holes and take guys heads off whenever they're open, going for a run. And I think with our defensive coordinator, Tony gibson back, which was a great signing for us to bring him back. I expect him to be able to put you know, Wyatt right in the right position to succeed. So I don't think he's not going to be Peyton Wilson obviously, but I think he can at least attempt to fill the void that was left. And then the secondary has a ton of new faces, but they'll probably be the biggest downgrade.
49:42
Some notable ones just so you know the name. Donovan Kaufman is a rotational safety kind of going to come in on like obvious running downs. He's a good tackler. And then we got this guy, this group of guys I'm calling them the Cooley core. They're to Maryland linebacker
50:00
ackers, both with the last name Cooley. One of them spells it with one Oh, and one of them spells it with two O's. And it's to Marcus and Cory One of them's a senior who's been okay. But you know, not amazing in his career but more of a rotational guy which is Cory the other one is to Marcus who's a redshirt sophomore and he's apparently projected to be the starter right now. Which is definitely the biggest you know wildcard in terms of our secondary we're gonna gonna have to I mean maybe he doesn't win the cornerback to job and week one but as of right now he's projected as the starter so if that's the case we're obviously gonna have to hope that he does something or you know, definitely gonna have to look at like Aiden white and divan Boykin to really take steps up and their last year here because if they don't the secondary may have gotten a little bit worse. Are you sure it's not Koli? Yeah, Callie, when I say Cooley, he said the Coolio Cooley, what do you call them? cooly? cooly? cooly? Yes. Sorry. Well, I think one is coli. And one is cool. Oh, yeah, cuz this one oh, and to us? Yeah. C O L versio. Yeah, Colleen Cooley. Yeah. If my starting I was I was trying to come up with like a cool name. They're a cool name. Yeah. Cool name. Yeah. But
51:19
funny, though. They're both from Maryland. And they have the same last name except just one Oh, is missing from their last name? Yes. Cool. would you guess that is cool. Well, it's definitely not pronounced the same way. He was. Yeah. You kind of said I looked at over but you're an idiot. Sure. Yeah. I mean, idiot. Okay. I don't know about that one. Especially if you listen to this damn podcast. You know, that's not the case for sure. I'm not playing any amount of dedicated wham decaf do a server. I didn't say. Oh, yeah. I just typically you didn't say it. Yeah, you did just play it. But that's the transfer class. And you might be thinking we're missing someone. It's because I saved the best for last. And that is our quarterback. We're getting a new quarterback this year. Grayson McCall, former three star he is a grad transfer from Coastal Carolina. And while I think Noah Rogers, the receiver from Ohio State is the probably the biggest wildcard and the one that we're like, this guy is the most potential. Grayson is the most important one, obviously, because he's the quarterback. You know, I know people do have doubts, as we kind of went down this road last year with Brendan Armstrong, because it was kind of the same thing at grad transfer. We bring him in for one year. Which if you tuned into the episode, speaking of how I'm not an idiot, during the season, I was completely correct about the season in him in terms of how it went, especially with him versus NBA, Morris and that whole thing, which MJ ironically, is now going to be going to Maryland. But nonetheless, compared to preseason expectations, he was definitely disappointed. Brennan was and I think McCall is going to come in having started four years at Coastal Carolina, where he went 35 and 10. Before this past year 2023. Head coach, his former head coach said he had Jamie Chadwell. He was first in second always with the Coastal Carolina in their conference, and they were even ranked 14th in 2020. But Grayson underhand has three bowl appearances. And then after this coach leaves he takes over Liberty this very last recent year 2023 Liberty goes 13 and one and finishes ranked number 25. So clearly the coach succeeded. But McCall ended up suffering a concussion midway through the season this year for Coastal Carolina, and did not play the rest of the year. Now, I think the injuries should be behind him at this point. But before the 2023 season in 2020 and 2021 He was great as a top three passer in the nation. And he was top 10 in 2022. Both of these years, his old blind was ranked below average. his playstyle is very different from Armstrong in terms of what we're going to be seeing, it's much more traditional. He's not really as much of a runner as Armstrong was but I think that could be a good thing. Because he's a much more of a refined passer. His best strength is his deep ball for sure great deep ball passer which is funny. I mean it's literally the total opposite of Armstrong here that we're getting. He is ideal size six three to 20 not as mobile as Armstrong but very capable in the pocket. He does a good job at detecting blitzes, and is very good at anticipating the Blitz to make adjustments before the play great with play action as well. One thing that I had kind of seen is is not as good with screen passes, which may be overlooked, but I think that'll definitely need to be something that we
55:00
Look at in terms of changing up the formula, because from us to having watch, you know, a lot of the games last year, it seems like the offense changed halfway through the year, because obviously they had to have different quarterbacks but they finally were like, oh, yeah, let's get Casey on screens more. Let's get him the short route because he's so good to do this. Think it's gonna have to be a different formula with McCall. It's going to have to be Hey, we have actual outside receivers. Now we have an actual receiving tight end. Let's get some more traditional routes, traditional plays going in here who is the receiving tight end? The first guy that we talked about Justin jolly, you forgot about juice. Juice wells use Vereen, Vereen, you know, really, I mean, sure, but like, he's like, You didn't watch football? No, I did. But he's not gonna be a starter, the only relevant receiver we had with Casey, do you realize that almost over 70% of our offense was Brennan Armstrong and KC Concepcion. Yeah, but Jews had a couple games here and there where he showed, I mean, he was a freshman as well.
56:08
I know what I'm talking about people, we're going to start like right now. He, I mean, he will be in there. There is no way he won't be. You know, it could be a tobacco. But Justin is going to be starting. You don't bring freshmen into the program, just to have them not play in their second and third years, because you're bringing transfers in No, that is possible, though. That's done. Yeah. Well, especially as they show that they have talent. They're committing to your program. Is that going to start? I don't know if you think he is, he's not going to start? Well, Justin starting, he should? Well, maybe he should or shouldn't, but I think he won't think he's not going to. Because the one of the big transfers that they just brought in is going to start who's actually played. I think that's what they need to do. Like, last year, they were like, Okay, here's some receivers, we think they can do this within they can do that. It's not that they got bailed. People don't understand, they got totally bailed that Casey as a true freshman came in and actually produced as well as he did. Like if he even if he did not even close, like, let's say it is 75 65% of what he did, we would have like two or three more losses on the schedule. That's how important he was to our offense. Because the O line wasn't doing anything. Brennan couldn't throw the ball down the field. And he was just running the whole time. And sometimes it worked. But, you know, Casey was the only other x factor. And like you said, no one else really stepped up. Some people have games like Timmons had a game here and there, but no one was consistent at all. And so I think, you know, it's the offense that we ran in general, was not consistent whatsoever, just having Brennan run and Casey run and doing all these weird screenplays and everything. So I think they're doing a good job of bringing in more traditional guys to which, you know, they can get McCall in there, who's a much better passer and now he has actual guys on the outside more of a consistent option at tight end, a consistent option at running back there could still be guys that come and play, obviously, but I'm talking about in terms of getting the majority of the snaps, these are the guys they're going to at least unless you know barring injury, obviously going to be starting off the year as hey, we're planning on these guys being the starters. And that's kind of what I'm looking forward to you know, I'm looking forward to it. I think it's just gonna be a much more clean showing of offense even if the defense is not as explosive with the obvious loss of Payton Wilson. Is a curry Colin still on the roster. Yeah, that's what I said with DJ something. I tried to look up his name. Sometimes it was DJ sometimes it was the Khari in terms of where different places like legit it will on NC State's website it's the car yeah the car and then if I looked if you look on I forget which website it was, but it says like DJ on another one. So I was like, okay, that's weird. But yeah, DJ DeCarli same guy. He's the one that you know is going to be price switching or playing with along with
58:59
with Wesley Grimes. The transfer from from Wakeford is this guy was the Clemson transfer that came in from last year. Yeah.
59:07
Colin Collins Yeah, so that's why you know, they're both they played a ton but they had two or three games where they played and it looks solid so they'll they'll be switching off but offense I think you could be way more optimistic about the guys that left I don't think we're like oh shoot they we wish they did more and the guys that are still here like obviously you brought up wells and
59:28
the running back he's been my Yeah, Rafael. Like, those are two guys that we were young and we're like, oh, maybe they could actually do something. They'll get playing time they just won't start which is fine because we don't need them to start because we have transfers that come in and one of them is obviously going to be like hey, we hope this guy does well with Noah brown but there are no Rogers but like, you know, waters jolly these other guys have proven that they've can play and I think that's just what we need it. We just need the consistency. They may not be as explosive as Casey
1:00:00
But maybe there's a freshman down there that is if they are they'll prove it. But they can prove it at training camp or in, you know, during practices, and maybe during a little bit of game time, but we got consistency now. So I think the offense is the biggest bump. And I think overall, this transfer class should be viewed as a w. because you know, it was inevitable, we were going to lose Peyton, and you're not going to get Peyton Wilson like player in the in the portal. But you know, they went to JUCO route, and I think it might end up being pretty well. So, overall,
1:00:32
you know, I think the expectation that is that we are going to improve in the wind calm, which we can go more into the, you know, preview and stuff when the football season actually starts. But the schedule last year gave us some pretty big favors like Miami, Unc, Clemson and Louisville all at home, which we lost the Louisville game, but all those teams at home, which is not going to repeat itself. So, you know, as of right now, in terms of early projections, it's kind of Clemson and Florida State that are at the top right now. But we're right in the second tier mix with Louisville and Miami, in terms of these preseason projections. So,
1:01:10
you know, we'll see obviously, when football season comes around how we performed but I think this class overall could be looked at positively as as a an upgrade the offense, we're going to feel way more better about watching on on Saturdays and even with some defensive losses, which are definitely have to be adjusted or addressed. I think overall, it was we got more coming in in terms of value, then we lost the the transfer class. I'm sorry, could you please repeat your dedicated wham to a server?
1:01:47
And that is the end. The episode would have finished. Do you have anything else that you'd like to say before we go? Nope. Tune in next time before we go on spring break? Yeah, we got spring break. So we'll have one more episode and then party. Yeah, sure. We'll go party. It'll be out around the sixth that it'll be out before Selection Sunday. So
1:02:13
we won't really have full tournament projection predictions by then but maybe the next week after spring break. We could go into our tournament stuff. But that is all thank you for listening to light at Red. And we'll see you guys later.
1:02:33
Music In this podcast was Jonas Hooper's king of sports and vibe and sneaky, licensed under creative commons from the Free Music Archive
Transcribed by https://otter.ai